What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fourth Doctor Adventures #3.3
Doctor Who: The Crooked Man
Winter at the seaside. The wind blows. The waves crash. People are dying and a strange spindly figure stalks the cold, deserted streets. A typical holiday for the Doctor and Leela in other words.
When they stumble across a grotesque series of murders at the coast, the TARDIS travellers realise the local constabulary is out of its depth. Something supernatural has come to town, something evil. And it all seems to be tied in to a particular young family.
Monsters lurk behind strange doors. Tragic secrets wait to be uncovered. And somewhere, deep within, the Crooked Man sits. He is waiting for you.
Written By: John Dorney
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs
Cast
Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Neil Stuke (The Crooked Man), Sarah Smart (Laura Corbett), Robin Pearce (Simon Corbett/Reporter), Richard Earl (Ellis Andrews/Rance), Lizzie Roper (Celia Turner/Lesley King)
When they stumble across a grotesque series of murders at the coast, the TARDIS travellers realise the local constabulary is out of its depth. Something supernatural has come to town, something evil. And it all seems to be tied in to a particular young family.
Monsters lurk behind strange doors. Tragic secrets wait to be uncovered. And somewhere, deep within, the Crooked Man sits. He is waiting for you.
Written By: John Dorney
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs
Cast
Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Neil Stuke (The Crooked Man), Sarah Smart (Laura Corbett), Robin Pearce (Simon Corbett/Reporter), Richard Earl (Ellis Andrews/Rance), Lizzie Roper (Celia Turner/Lesley King)
Audio CD
First published March 31, 2014
About the author
John Dorney
174 books26 followersJohn Dorney is a British writer and actor best known for stage roles including the National Theatre, the BBC Radio 4 sitcom My First Planet; and his scripts for the Big Finish Doctor Who range. His script 'Solitaire' was rated the most popular Doctor Who Companion Chronicle of 2010 on the Timescales website and was the runner up in Unreality Sci-fi net's poll for Story of the Year 2010-11.
As well as Doctor Who, he has written for Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel series and on radio co-wrote three series of BBC Radio 4's Recorded for Training Purposes. He won the BBC Show Me the Funny 'Sketch Factor' competition, was a finalist in the BBC 'Laughing Stock' competition, and has performed in Mark Watson's Edinburgh Comedy Award winning long shows as 'The Balladeer'. On stage, he has written plays for the Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead and Soho Theatres.
He trained at LAMDA.
As well as Doctor Who, he has written for Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel series and on radio co-wrote three series of BBC Radio 4's Recorded for Training Purposes. He won the BBC Show Me the Funny 'Sketch Factor' competition, was a finalist in the BBC 'Laughing Stock' competition, and has performed in Mark Watson's Edinburgh Comedy Award winning long shows as 'The Balladeer'. On stage, he has written plays for the Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead and Soho Theatres.
He trained at LAMDA.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 4, 2022
Brilliant performance by the actor doing the villain in this piece. Spine-tingling in places. The "making of" bit at the end says that his dialogue was a bit too scary and was toned down, only for the actor to ramp it back up again with his performance.
November 28, 2018
Very well done. Very clever story. Great production value. Really enjoyed it.
May 19, 2018
The Doctor and Leela visit an English town in the modern day, to try to solve a series of mysterious killings. At the heart of it all are a young couple who have just inherited a house where something strange is going on in the library.
The first half of the story unfolds rather like a procedural, as the Doctor talks to the police and possible witnesses about the murderous goings on. This attracts the attention of the killer, and both the action and the strangeness of the setting ramp up in the second half. What initially appears to be a standalone story does turn out to have links to a certain televised story, and I confess I didn't see that coming until the big reveal.
However, that's not really the big twist, and the one that is is so well telegraphed, it's hard to imagine that many listeners won't have figured it out long before the Doctor explains all in the closing segment. In fairness, it makes perfect sense, and does give a sound justification for a plot motif that was used less convincingly a few times during the Moffat era on TV.
Leela is perhaps used less well here than in some of the earlier stories in the era; she does get to reflect on her father's death at one point, but there's nothing particularly new or insightful in it. There's some decent banter, too, although it doesn't really sparkle. None of this is a fatal weakness, however, and some of the more surreal elements of the story do raise it above the merely average. But only to 3.5 stars, which I'm going to round down.
The first half of the story unfolds rather like a procedural, as the Doctor talks to the police and possible witnesses about the murderous goings on. This attracts the attention of the killer, and both the action and the strangeness of the setting ramp up in the second half. What initially appears to be a standalone story does turn out to have links to a certain televised story, and I confess I didn't see that coming until the big reveal.
However, that's not really the big twist, and the one that is is so well telegraphed, it's hard to imagine that many listeners won't have figured it out long before the Doctor explains all in the closing segment. In fairness, it makes perfect sense, and does give a sound justification for a plot motif that was used less convincingly a few times during the Moffat era on TV.
Leela is perhaps used less well here than in some of the earlier stories in the era; she does get to reflect on her father's death at one point, but there's nothing particularly new or insightful in it. There's some decent banter, too, although it doesn't really sparkle. None of this is a fatal weakness, however, and some of the more surreal elements of the story do raise it above the merely average. But only to 3.5 stars, which I'm going to round down.
May 22, 2018
Picture of the 4th Doctor and Leela adventures of the Crooked Man by John Dorney.
I've just finished listening to this and wow. I think I've found a new favourite John Dorney story? I went into this not expecting anything but this one has blown my mind with containing few things i love; books, imagination and doctor who.
It was emotionally touching and Neil Stuke did a fantastic job as the Crooked Man. (Now i really want big finish to do a story with the Nightmare Man from Sarah Jane Adventures and the Crooked Man. They would be terrifying together in those creepy voices.)
Absolutely wonderful story.
I've just finished listening to this and wow. I think I've found a new favourite John Dorney story? I went into this not expecting anything but this one has blown my mind with containing few things i love; books, imagination and doctor who.
It was emotionally touching and Neil Stuke did a fantastic job as the Crooked Man. (Now i really want big finish to do a story with the Nightmare Man from Sarah Jane Adventures and the Crooked Man. They would be terrifying together in those creepy voices.)
Absolutely wonderful story.
September 13, 2023
Interesting that this was released just after Doctor Who: White Ghosts as both stories rift off of fairytales and fiction. As always, Tom Baker is fantastic as the Doctor and Leela (Louis Jameson) is his best companion, whether on the television screen or in a Big Finish production. I liked the mystery here and there was some clever wordplay. However, .
August 18, 2018
A good listen this one, fair bit of mystery in here, and packed a reasonable emotional punch as well. Doctor in Leela in good form as usual, and supported by a wide variety of different antagonists and protagonists. Good strong, emotional finish to the story as well. Only 'bad' part as such is that only 2 episodes long, would have been a great 4 parter.
June 25, 2023
The first half is great, lots of suspense. The second half is a bit of a mess, lots of noise and sounds and even sometimes incomprehensible dialogue. But it has some really funny lines and a great twist and ending. 3,5 stars
November 9, 2023
The Fourth Doctor Adventures aren't always my favourite but this one was fun. (Ironic that I just finished the Land of Fiction trilogy and this involves fictional characters coming out from the Land of Fiction, and invading Earth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 21, 2025
After the fiction vs nonfiction themes were presented in "Lux," this felt like a natural next thing to listen to, given it involves the Land of Fiction.
July 3, 2014
Given that The Crooked Man is from the pen of John Dorney, it shouldn't be a surprise that I enjoyed it as much as I did. And that's despite having an reveal in the last five or so minutes that I guessed long before the Doctor and company deduced it (or at least that they confirmed it in the course of the story).
The Doctor and Leela arrive in a sea-side town for a holiday but discover that a macabre series of murders is taking place. Investigating further, they soon discover there's a link between these murders and a local family -- the sinister and creepy Crooked Man of the title.
The idea of world of fiction having the ability to crossover into reality is nothing new for Doctor Who (see the Troughton era serial "The Mind Robber") so it's a huge credit to Dorney's script that it manages to feel interesting when done here. And while there's a twist in the last five or so minutes of the script that's telegraphed fairly early on by the story, it's still one that is entirely earned by the story.
This one is filled with witty one-liners for Leela and some well excecute dialogue by the rest of the cast. It's interesting to see a thread developing over this run of stories for the fourth Doctor and Leela and it will intrigue me to see if and how the audios can or will pay it off.
The Doctor and Leela arrive in a sea-side town for a holiday but discover that a macabre series of murders is taking place. Investigating further, they soon discover there's a link between these murders and a local family -- the sinister and creepy Crooked Man of the title.
The idea of world of fiction having the ability to crossover into reality is nothing new for Doctor Who (see the Troughton era serial "The Mind Robber") so it's a huge credit to Dorney's script that it manages to feel interesting when done here. And while there's a twist in the last five or so minutes of the script that's telegraphed fairly early on by the story, it's still one that is entirely earned by the story.
This one is filled with witty one-liners for Leela and some well excecute dialogue by the rest of the cast. It's interesting to see a thread developing over this run of stories for the fourth Doctor and Leela and it will intrigue me to see if and how the audios can or will pay it off.
April 14, 2014
This was a very fun adventure, childhood stories and evil books and people vanishing and doubles. Thoroughly enjoyable.
October 3, 2014
Creepy with a neat twist at the end, although I did see it coming. Love the dialogue between Leela and the Doctor.
July 22, 2016
The Doctor and Leela fight fictional character murdering people.
April 18, 2017
Loved hearing Tom Baker and Louise Jameson's voices again! This was a fun adventure involving a book monster!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews